USA East

Saint Petersburg, Russia — A field of sixteen teams began the season in the 2009 “M-1 CHALLENGE ” (www.M-1Global.com) earlier this year. With two teams remaining it was time to crown a champion, on December 3, 2009 at the Ice Palace, Team Russia Legion defeated Team USA East in dominating fashion to capture the 2009 M-1 Challenge Championship Cup.

Both teams entered the finals on the heels of impressive semi-final performances, but it was Russia Legion, who managed to score a perfect evening in their team match up defeating USA East 5-0.

Amsterdam, Holland – Considered by many pundits to be the odds-on favorite to win the 2009 M-1 Challenge, Team USA West announced Monday four fifths of its roster for its upcoming semifinal matchup on Sept. 26 in Rostov, Russia.

USA West earned front-runner status after besting Brazil Naja, Russia Imperial, and South Korea in a deep Group B pool by posting a perfect 3-0 record and a stellar individual record of 13-2. But while USA West will field a formidable lineup vs. its U.S. counterparts, noticeably absent from the roster are two of its top fighters, lightweight Dave Jansen and light heavyweight Raphael Davis.

With welterweight Steve Carl still sidelined by leg surgery and lightweight Renato Migliaccio now on the shelf due to shoulder surgery, USA East has been forced to make multiple roster changes in anticipation of its Sunday, Aug. 16 M-1 Challenge matchup vs. Team Benelux.

The best-of-five series, scheduled to emanate from Studio 22 in Hilversum, Holland and will be televised live via Internet PPV on www.M-1Global.com (not available in the U.S. or Korea), is set to serve as the feature attraction of a two-day “mega-taping” of the M-1 Challenge scheduled from Aug. 15-16. All told, the weekend will feature 10 teams from the M-1 Challenge for a total of 30 fights.

Despite having only accepted a fight on 36 hours notice, Team USA East heavyweight Lloyd Marshbanks was the deciding factor in his team’s come-from-behind 3-2 victory over Team Finland on Friday night in Kansas City.

Marshbanks was added to the Team USA roster after Mike Ottman did not receive medical clearance from the Kansas Boxing Commission.

Listed on some fight databases at 16-8, industry insiders believe that Marshbanks is 50-8, with many of his fights taking place in Mexico, Peru, Argentina, and also in California before mixed martial arts was legal. Marshbanks improved to 17-8 officially after submitting Toni Valtonen at 0:55 of round 2 due to a neck crank.

We at PRO MMA (promma.info) are always on the look out for MMA’s up-and-coming talent, potential future stars of tomorrow. A couple of weeks ago we introduced you to one such heavyweight prospect by the name of Liron Wilson (4-2) and we talked with him the day prior to his fight at King of the Cage.

Wilson fought Jason Bedker at KOTC: EL LOBO on May 23rd in Colorado and walked away with an armbar submission victory just 1:09 into round one. A few days following the bout, Wilson received the short notice offer to fight on the June 5th card at the M-1 CHALLENGE event in Kansas City, Missouri.

Because Wilson’s victory came so quickly and he came out of the May 23rd fight unscathed, he jumped at the prospect of fighting at the June 5th M-1 CHALLENGE event. Wilson will be representing Team Turkey as they take on the World Team and his opponent will be Michael Kitta.